” Carlock, IL USDA Loan”

Carlock is a village in McLean County, Illinois, United States. The population was 548 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Bloomington–Normal Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Carlock was laid out on January 5, 1888, by John Franklin Carlock. Mr. Carlock owned 160 acres (65 ha) of land. One 80-acre (32 ha) tract was used to plat the original village of Carlock. It was located south of the hard road, Route 9 (now U.S. Route 150), connecting Bloomington and Peoria. It was one of the last towns platted in McLean County. Just northeast of the present location of Carlock the main road from Bloomington to Peoria, which was locally known as the Old Trail passed or the Old Peoria Trail, ascended a low range of wooded hills. This location had long been of interest to townsite developers. The first attempt was made by local farmer John McGee, who in 1838 laid out the town of Livingston; it consisted of seven blocks and a town square. Livingston was a total failure. McGee was unable to sell a single lot. The second attempt at town founding was more successful. By the 1850s a small cluster of houses and stores had begun to cluster just west of McGee’s townsite. In 1866 a post office was established with the name Oak Grove. On July 17, 1879, an official town plat was filed. Soon there were about twenty dwellings, a large town hall, two general stores, a blacksmith shop, a steam-driven mill, a harness and shoe shop, and a brass band. One reporter wrote that all the town needed “is a railroad”.

By March 1887 it was clear that a railroad would pass nearby, and local people were denying rumors that their town would be picked up bodily and carried to the railroad. The people at Oak Grove sent a delegation to Bloomington to explain to the superintendent of the Lake Erie and Western Railroad the reasons for putting a station at Oak Grove; his reply was not encouraging. Then local farmer John Franklin Carlock, who also had a contract to supply the railroad with oak ties, laid out a new town about a mile and a half away. In November 1879 it was announced that the town movers had arrived in Oak Grove. Buildings were placed on skids and hauled down the hill to the site of Carlock. By February 1888 residents were moving into their newly re-located homes. In June 1888 the Oak Grove correspondent of The Pantagraph reported that “nothing is left of our town but pieces”. Further west along the same new railroad, other towns were in motion: buildings from Farnisville moved to Congerville, and Chaffers Corners went to the new town of Deer Creek.

The plan of the original town of Carlock was small and simple. It was a rectangle bisected diagonally into two equal parts by the railroad, with one whole block and two partial blocks on each side of the tracks. There were a total of 85 lots. Most of the businesses were along Perry Street north of the tracks. In 1895 there were about sixty buildings in Carlock; most of these were newly built, and only about twelve had been moved from Oak Grove. Because of the late date at which the town was developed, it did not enjoy the rapid growth of some that were established earlier. Carlock remained a rural service center, grain shipping point, and residential community.

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture purchased a chunk of land to the northeast of Carlock, off Church Street. This land, which has been incorporated by the village, is being developed as a three-phase subdivision named Stoneman Gardens with approximately 65 lots of 0.5 acres (2,000 m2) and a small park. The houses are built by the future, low-income owners of the homes with the assistance of an organization called YouthBuild McLean County and is financed by the USDA. This effort allows families which otherwise could not afford to move into a new home to do so. Ground was broken in 2005, and as of July 2010 development had begun on the third and easternmost phase which was to include the park and the final grouping of houses. While the subdivision currently has only one access point – Church Street – at least one additional access is planned in order to link directly to US-150 to the south.